Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

23 reviews

wispy_reviews's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying

junieeee's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

chrisljm's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book contained so much heart so it's not surprising to say that I cried in the end. While not a romance, it does contain the love story between Ove and his wife Sonja. The love he has for her is so sweet and so sad, because the book is also a story on grief and how Ove deals with losing the love of his life. It's about grief and loneliness, but also how friendship and community can be healing. 

The relationships in this novel was truly the best part for me. I loved reading about Ove's newfound relationship with his neighbors, and slowly seeing the ones he had in the past. He is very much a grumpy old man where despite how much he tries to fight them, a friendship and community can't help but form between him and his neighbors. It's hilarious seeing him try to beef with children, but the way they bonded with each other tugged on my heart.

And when they called him granddad I felt my heart squeeze. As did the reveal on Jimmy's back story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Outing

kt2e56's review

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was hoping this would be a five star book for me based on reviews I’ve read but alas, it’s only a 3. I was really enjoying it at first but it started to become very repetitive and quite frankly, Ove kinda sucks. He has some good qualities! He’s saved lives! He does eventually help his neighbors! But he comes across less like a grumpy old badger who just is lonely and more like an outright bigot. He’s super misogynistic (and never really changes that). He’s racist (and never really changes that). He lets a gay man stay with him after he’s been kicked out of his home which is lovely! But he refers to him as (I’m presuming based off of Pervana’s reaction to the phrase) a slur 80% of the time. And I think the most annoying is that he is (but also quite frankly the author is too) WILDLY fatphobic. Like disgustingly so. And Backman himself also seems SUPER fatphobic as he can’t write about Jimmy at all without calling him a slob, talking about whether or not his clothes fit, constantly making him pester everyone about food, etc. It’s gross. I do like the overall message and there are moments that are sweet here but even in flashbacks to life with his beloved wife, Sonja, I can’t help but wonder why she stayed with a man who belittled her pretty frequently and also was just so nasty to others. His hatred of bureaucrats makes sense! His racism, sexism, and other casual bigotry really does not. None of that factors into his backstory and I feel like it’s odd that the author made certain qualities of Ove so repugnant when he could have just been a crotchety old man and loner who thinks everyone else is incompetent. The story would have been just as impactful. It all ties itself up by the end with a neat little bow but there are portions of this that are genuinely draining to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

sambo_0103's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy

bites_of_books's review against another edition

The main character is unbearable, from the start he is making all kinds of awful remarks about everyone who is even a little bit different from him. He calls his neighbor "foreign" another "overweight", he takes zero effort in getting to know people as people. I imagined that this could be a book like the movie Up, where the man is unlikeable but will not always have been that way, instead, it's just how he's been his whole life. It was unfortunate that the author gave zero respite to Ove to be able to become a multidimensional character instead of just flat and awful.

The only way he was able to continue living was by his neighbors literally forcing themselves into his life. Also, the people who go in to "rescue" him and make him better are either POC or disabled or a cat.

Overall just not for me at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

abominablesnowaro's review against another edition

funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

james1star's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Agh this book was something. Quick plotline is we follow Ove who is ‘grumpy old man’ who has decided to die after loosing his wife and job but then things put a halt to his plans and Yhh that’s all I’ll say as I don’t want to ruin anything for readers. 

It was so good!! Oh my goodness!! I absolutely loved this story - it was so emotive, sad, happy, sweet, tender, annoying, tense, lovely and just everything. Perfect character analysis which is followed throughout where we start not really liking Ove but as every paragraph goes on you fall in love with him, such a turnaround. And the plethora of side characters are so diverse, lovable, real and have in depth characters analyses too. My favourite character would 100% be Sonja, no doubt about it (unintentional ABBA reference) who was just pure loveliness, the sweetest, most caring and amazing woman with such a positive attitude, wow!! Ove is certainly problematic at points but this just makes him so real and Yhh everything in terms of plot and character studyness was exceptional. 

My only qualm and why I dropped it slightly below the full 5 stars is I didn’t exactly love the writing style, I personally felt there was far too much repetition of names (Ove is written at least every 5 lines on every page for example) and other things, topics and the like but it definitely readable and enjoyable but only a slight issue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Miscarriage, and Dementia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, and Car accident

chris_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dementia, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Xenophobia